Name: Rachel Lee
Position/Where: Media Production Specialist, BJC Healthcare
Career Highlights:
Worked for Webster University as staff support for the Non-Linear Editing Assistant (NLEA) Work Study program at Webster University’s Media Center.
I started my own business, Railee Productions and collaborated with freelance media professionals in St. Louis.
April, 2011 – started a production company with my best friend, Two Storytellers, LLC.
March, 2011 – began a professional internship with Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s Marketing and PR team. I produced an average of 10 videos per month for various programs and events at BJH.
December 2011 – joined BJC’s Media Services Team. I am providing media support and post-production for St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s Heart Center. I’m producing various projects for the chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery.
Education: BA Video Production- Webster University 2007
Personal:
I’m originally from Nashville, TN and have no family in St. Louis so I’m very close to my friends here. Four of my family members live in Nashville: Mom, Dad, older sister and younger brother. My sister Gretchen taught elementary school in the Maplewood School District before moving back home. My 2nd oldest sister lives and works in New York.
My church and church family mean a lot to me. I’m a member of Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis (MCCGSL). I absolutely love being an alto in our choir and co-leader of UNLEASHED, our monthly praise and worship service. Our choir competed in the Verizon Wireless “How Sweet the Sound” choir competition for three years and won our Region in 2011. We won $10,000, new Verizon smart phones and a trip to Los Angeles to compete in the Finale last October.
I’m a member of our young adult group E3: Empower, Enrich, Embody. We provide a safe place for friendship, opportunities to serve and witness about our faith.
St. Louis Connection:
My older sister was attending WashU and invited me to visit her in St. Louis. I liked the city and on my second official visit to Webster University, I thought their basketball team and School of Communications would be a great fit for me.
Journey to success:
Webster offered students the opportunity to be as great as they wanted to be and I took advantage. As a freshman I sought out Cool Fire Media and worked as a non-paid intern to get experience.
I started filming weddings and local community events for free. I bought my first laptop (MacBook) for $500 and started editing out of my bedroom/home studio. I was blessed to go on tour with R&B recording artists Floetry as their personal videographer on the Sugar Water Festival tour. I produced a documentary as an Independent Study Project and sold my raw footage to VH1-Soul.
I always reached out to young professionals and entrepreneurs for collaborations. I shook a lot of hands and did a lot of networking. I volunteered at church and did a lot for free or very cheap.
I worked retail at Bath and Body Works, I was an administrative assistant at a T-Shirt screen printing and embroidery shop and I coached basketball for two local high schools while working part-time at Webster. Sometimes I was working three or four jobs – including my own business, to pay my bills.
I was discouraged that I’d never find that “dream job” and was convinced I’d be working odd jobs forever. I didn’t want to give up my Webster job because it was my only sure connection to my future career in media.
A friend told me that the people I met at BJH and the work I’d be doing would be more valuable to me at that point in my career than anything I was doing and he was right. I went in to BJH with an attitude to “knock their socks off” with my work and work ethic. I was determined to make a good impression and get my foot in the door.
He was right. I finally got the call that they were considering me for a new FT position. After I accepted the job, I felt like all my work had finally paid off. A combination of being extremely blessed, working my absolute hardest and being in the right place at the right time are why I’m where I am today.
